05-31-2011, 05:19 PM | #31 |
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I may be wrong, but I am under the impression that reading was at its peak in the US between 1895 and 1930 - when the inexpensive pulp magazines were available and popular.
As I see it, reading declined when people bought radios to listen to. The motion picture may have contributed some as well, but people went to the movies only once a week. I think that the popularity of the pulps was based in large part on their low price. Today we see books with $30 price points, notwithstanding the bestsellers' being discounted down to half that. And mass market paperbacks are now up to 7 and 8 dollars. I can't help but think that the publishers are pricing themselves out of business. |
06-01-2011, 05:39 AM | #32 |
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I agree. I think ebooks are recreating the dime novels atmosphere. Availability + price = win. I'm very happy about it and I think quality will rise to the top. There's a lot of stuff that were looked down upon when they were published, but are considered classics decades later. Just look at Edgar Rice Burroughs and Tarzan, Maxwell Grant and the Shadow, and Johnston McCulley and Zorro. Heck, look at the early days of the comic book industry. So much of it was considered dreck, but we still recognize those names today. And movies were made out of them. Good stories will be always around, it's just hard to predict which ones will have lasting impact.
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06-01-2011, 03:48 PM | #33 |
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I do not really understand all the rage against the publishers. Tens of thousands of new books are being published each year and I don't believe that availability of books was ever better than today.
If we trim all fat from the publishing industry, then which publisher will have the money to e.g. risk having an unknown foreign author translated? Do you seriously think that things will get better once the Jobs and Bezos have taken over the shop completely? |
06-01-2011, 04:21 PM | #34 |
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I blame the Authors! The ones that tease us with their series of great stories, especially.
They just refuse to write the stories as fast as I can read them. That Jim Butcher Guy is one of the worst. I read all his "Codex Alera" series, waiting on the next "Harry Dresden". My pre-order of the "Ghost Story" eBook won't get here until sometime in July. Even more prolific authors must be dragging their feet, my pre-order of the next "Elemental Masters" won't be available for download before June 7. I suppose it could be that the publishers aren't flogging their authors enough? Yeah, it's probably the publishers fault. Luck; Ken |
06-02-2011, 04:05 AM | #35 |
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That's certainly true, but as the 'reads a bit' moves from 80% of the population reading a book per year to maybe 20% of the population reading a book once per year, things get difficult. The chase for the lowest common denominator turns into a dash down the plughole.
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06-02-2011, 05:05 AM | #36 |
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If I have to blame someone for the decline in the popularity of reading, my first choice for that honor would be uninspiring teachers. Too many teachers do not read themselves, are unable to pass on a love of reading to their students, and do not understand a book if the understanding requires going beyond the cliff notes version.
When I was in elementary school many decades ago, one of our ongoing assignments was to read x number of books each week, write a brief report explaining the book and why classmates should read it, and outlining all the new words and meanings we learned. The teacher also participated and did the same tasks. Then once a month we had reading day when we had to read to the class excerpts (if the book was too long) from the best book we had read that month. When my youngest was in elementary school 30 years ago, not a single teacher gave similar assignments. Consequently, I picked up the ball at home, and set an example by banning TV and having reading time instead. I look at my neighbor's child who is now in elementary school and, again, there is no reading assignment. There are computer assignments and the child certainly knows how to Twitter, but read a book -- just isn't going to happen except as his parents ecourage it. According to the parents, you can't even ask the teacher for reading recommendations because they have no clue -- it isn't on their smart phone or computer so it must not exist. |
06-02-2011, 05:09 AM | #37 | |
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I guess the real culprit is the computer, which has made everyone a slushpile author by making it so easy to edit their work -- just run spellcheck and all will be well. Hmmm, maybe the real culprit is Microsoft which gives us the spellcheck, the teachers who rely on it, the students who don't know what a dictionary is, . . . |
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06-02-2011, 06:05 AM | #38 | |
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Assignments are fine, they need to be there, they have to learn comprehension etc. But if I had to read something that was boring to me, and 99.9% of the books I had to read were, I lost all comprehension abilities, got terrible grades, and fell asleep while reading. This is all in elementary school mind you, in High School all bets are off. I would have much rather been outside, and I believe that kids should be outside playing rather than inside with their nose in a book OR watching TV. |
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06-02-2011, 08:13 AM | #39 |
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Just to clarify: Although we were given reading assignments in elementary school, the assignment was usually to pick out a book that interested us while in the school library and then do the reports. My teachers, at least, did not assign specific titles.
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06-02-2011, 11:48 AM | #40 |
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I agree, about reading and schools. In public school, we could read what we wanted. Starting in high school, the joy of reading was beaten out of us when we had to read numerous novels and poems that were of no relevance to modern day life. When you have to understand the history of a past era in order to understand the point of a book, that book is no longer suitable for a standard high school English class.
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06-02-2011, 12:42 PM | #41 | |
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While there were many books that I hated reading in high school (waves at the Bronte sisters) the point of English class is to learn how the English language is used and introduce young people to classic works. I might have hated the Bronte's but mist of my female classmates seemed to think that they were just wonderful. I hated Algebra and Geometry, I still had to take them. They helped me develop a certain logical rigor that is applicable outside the classroom. I was never a fan of biology and chemistry (Why did I have to memorize the periodic table of elements again?) but that doesn't mean that I didn't learn something in those classes. Even if in the end all I learned was that there are times I have to apply myself and do my best when I don't find a subject interesting. School isn't about students doing things that they find fun or interesting, it is about learning. Sometimes it is about learning how to make yourself do work you don't find interesting. It is great when students love what they are learning but that is not going to happen all of the time. So bring on the Bronte and the Poe and other authors that teens think are rubbish. Their parents should be encouraging them to read stuff that they like at home outside of their school work. Let them learn to understand how English was used 100 years ago and use a dictionary to look up words that they don't know. On occassion, they will find that their are authors that they really love that they had never heard of before and would not find in a regular bookstore. |
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06-02-2011, 01:53 PM | #42 |
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"School isn't about students doing things that they find fun or interesting, it is about learning. Sometimes it is about learning how to make yourself do work you don't find interesting. It is great when students love what they are learning but that is not going to happen all of the time."
In a perfect world, yes. In the real world, you will get through to the bottom 70% of the class by making learning fun and entertaining. You can teach English and History in many ways. Entertaining storytellers will have no trouble finding an angle to get people interested in even the worst of novels. Unfortunately, the average teacher is not a master storyteller. The top 20% (I made that number up) of students are self-motivated, will get through the work as required, and get on to the next unpleasant job. The other 80% need to be sold on it. School time is expensive and limited, and should be applied to useful topics. History is valuable - democratic citizens need to know the basics, and how to avoid repeating history's mistakes. Old literature and poems do not fall into this category. People will find ways to entertain themselves; the hard work bits should not be last century's entertainment, but important skills, including history, science and math. All in my opinion, of course - I'm not claiming these are self-evident facts. |
06-02-2011, 01:57 PM | #43 |
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school isnt about learning anymore, just about getting high standardized test scores. any learning is usually done for homework. i remember when my little brother was in first grade and had over 3 hours of homework everyday, even weekends.
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06-02-2011, 04:18 PM | #44 | |
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Between Amazon Recommends and that BIG BAR ON EVERY PRODUCT PAGE saying Customers Who Looked At This Book Also Liked These Things Here and the emails they sent me every week about new releases in genres I like and the LOOK INSIDE THE COVER feature, I do ****way**** more browsing on Amazon than I ever, ever did in Real Life. Tl;Dr: If you don't use Amazon, you maybe shouldn't write an article about Amazon. |
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06-02-2011, 07:09 PM | #45 | |
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